How much childcare do grandparents provide now compared with previous generations?

I was never looked after by my maternal grandparents but they were in their 70s when I was born. My paternal grandmother would have us for the afternoon once we reached an age we could play table games with her as her health wasn't great.

MIL does one day a week and when we relocate she's going to give us a lot of grief.

I never stayed with either sets of grandparents (one set lived abroad), and my parents never provided childcare for my dcs, although they did for my siblings dcs.

By the time I was born my paternal grandfather had died and my grandmother was in poor health but my brother who is 7 years older than me does remember going to stay with grandma for about a month when he was about 4. As she got older we would be taken to visit her on a Sunday afternoon. On my mother's side, nanny worked full time in a factory until she was 60 but Mum only worked casual part time because my dad was in the Royal Navy and away for long stints. My aunt who lived in the same village as us did some babysitting. My parents did far more child care for my nephew but by the time my niece came along 16 years later they were only able to provide a few years of care before they were too old and unwell.

If my grandparents had lived closer to us I imagine they’d have looked after us more.

As it was I was letting myself into the house with my own key at 7 and staying in the house without an adult for up to two hours everyday which wouldnt happen now.

Statistically grandparents are much older these days. 40 years ago, you’d be a grandparent by your mid-40s. These days you’d probably be 60. For future generations it will be nearer 70. None of my grandparents lived to 70!

My upbringing and my children’s were similar in that there wasn’t daily childcare due to distance, but grandparents would have them/us for weekends and weeks at a time. To me this is hugely valuable, it allows time for the parents to have time alone which I think is important for a happy marriage and gives children and grandparents time to bond which I think is developed better over a decent chunk of time as opposed to regular drop in type visits. I hope to do the same, I wouldn’t want the pressure of daily support, I feel that is something parents should fund themselves.

My parents had my kids loads but my grandparents didn’t ever look after us.

I would say on a whole less time but that's due to a range of factors rather then grandparents don't want to be involved.

People tend to live further away from each other rather then just around the corner. The retirement age is older then it was and often people are working right up til retirement.

I remember spending weeks of holidays with my GM and remember her vividly taking 6 GCs on the train to London! No idea how she managed all of us!

My DM is retiring soon and is happy to have DCs for a bit of holidays which is fantastic. I wouldn't expect her to or want her to do every week childcare/school runs etc as that limits her options for going away or enjoying what she wants to.

I think it's pretty entitled to presume or get annoyed if a GP says they aren't going to do weekly childcare.

We had very little help when our DC were small. My mum (a widow) worked full time, and didn't drive so couldn't get to us anyway. DH's parents were too busy with hobbies/holidays etc. They would occasionally babysit for an evening or afternoon, but that was about it.

We now have 2 DGC and we babysit regularly at weekends but we don't provide daily childcare. I do have the youngest on a Friday morning however. We both still work (me part time), travel and have social lives, so we're doing what we can, which is a lot more than either of our parents ever did.

Never had scheduled childcare with grandparents would just be days out and sleepovers. My parents are the same. We did spend a lot of time with grandparents with parents and my kids again are the same.

My grandmother looked after my brother and me a lot in the holidays. We also spent a lot if time at the childminder.

My MIL has akways been keen to help. (My parents arent healthy enough)... partly because her own mother refused to do absolutely anything, not even occasion babysitting as "you chose to have children". Expected them all to run about after her though.